Seeing Species in the Therapeutic Encounter

This reflexive commentary takes up the aim expressed in the 2010 Special Issue of Feminism & Psychology focusing on feminism, psychology and non-human animals to raise awareness of speciesism. I do this by adopting a feminist phronetic approach to analysing some of my more-than-human experiences in therapy interaction. Focusing on two moments of canine agency in multispecies therapeutic encounters, I show how multispeciesism or anthropocentrism can be enacted in this setting. Seeing therapeutic interaction as multispecies aligns with feminist theory and praxis. Given the limited discussion in feminist psychology of “the human” and “the animal” this focused experiential reflection makes visible this intersection. Taking this feminist phronetic approach may be of benefit to feminist psychologists and therapists more broadly in centring and examining the value of more-than-human agency and interconnectedness.